Update on Maddie

Julie and I went to LR today to see Maddie and family. We stayed at the hospital for around 4 hours just talking, laughing, cuddling Maddie, and a few little tears. Maddie has been diagnosed with RSV. The mucus is so thick it just chokes her up and she throws up all of her feedings. They placed a feeding tube down into her intestines, bypassing her stomach, last night. She was "unplugged" from the feeding tube for a real bottle at 11 a.m. this morning and she kept that bottle down. When 2 o'clock rolled around, I was lucky enough to be holding her, so I got to feed her the 2 oz. She sucked that bottle down quick as lightening! We were all thinking positively when she had kept that bottle down for 45 minutes, when she started coughing and up came the milk and mucus! UGH! So, the nurse came in to hook the feeding tube up again for nourishment. Please pray that these feedings, whether through the tube or bottle, will stay in her system. She is almost back to birth weight!!! Pray for Misti and Michael. As you might imagine, Misti isn't getting the rest she needs. Thank you for lifting them up to our heavenly Father. He is the Great Physician!

Please pray for Maddie

I talked to my mom yesterday and she told me that my cousin Misti's baby had been in the hospital since the weekend. After a few days baby Maddie was still not able to keep anything down and was not gaining any weight even with an IV, so yesterday Angel 1 from Children's Hospital flew to Jonesboro and picked her up. Please pray that the doctors and nurses will know just what to do to figure out what is wrong. Pray for Misti and Michael. They also have a son, Jacob who probably doesn't understand what's going on. Michael is the youth/family minister at Valley View church of Christ. They have a great support system and lots of prayer being offered up on their behalf. Will you join me in praying for them too. Thank You. This is Misti and Maddie on Christmas Day.

How is it possible...

that my baby girl is one? I so didn't want this year to fly by, but against my wishes...it has! God truly blessed me with a precious daughter. Yes, I love my boys and I really thought I would be the mother of only boys, but now I know there is something special about a mother/daughter relationship. And I am so excited to see my relationship with Brylee develop.

She is so sweet and funny. If we are out shopping she will do anything to get fellow shoppers to look at her. She'll squeal, laugh, or most recently...yell "HHHHHIIIIII". She is a great sleeper. Most nights she goes down around 8:30 p.m. and doesn't get up until 7 a.m. She loves to eat and she loves her bottle. We will slowly be weaning off our morning and night bottles and exchanging the formula for whole milk. She is not walking yet but she gets anywhere she wants to go. She loves her "Dadda", "D" and "Bubby". They can make her laugh like no one else.

Today she faced the front in her new car seat for the first time in my van. She didn't know what to think of the view! She makes me smile everyday. I'm proud to be her momma. I love you Brylee. Happy 1st Birthday!!!!

A Fabulous Five Year Old

My baby boy turned 5 today. My how the time goes. Austin was born in El Dorado at 10:02 a.m. by c-section on February 9, 2004. From that day on our lives have been forever changed. The spunk, intensity, and humor this child has daily amazes me. Kent and I've watched him grow over the years, but this last year he has truly matured into a great kid. Of course he is still learning how to control that pesky temper, and sometimes it still rears its ugly head, but he's really making progress. Austin loves sports like Derek, but he is a redneck deep down. He knows most, if not all, the NASCAR drivers, their number, and main sponsor. He has also enjoyed 2 monster jam shows this year. Austin now says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. I can't think of a better job for him, my daredevil. We met with his pre-school teacher last week for our mid year conference. One thing I was happy to hear was that he is a leader. A "good" leader at that! He wants to do good, and most times he tries to do the right thing. His teacher also said he can do anything "if he wants to do it". We toured the elementary school Austin will be at in the fall. He was so cute walking around acting shy. Wow, I can't believe he will be in kindergarten.

One funny story to end with. At pre-school the other day there was a chair tipped back but not falling over because it was being held up by the table. Austin looked at it and said, "Well look at that, the chair thinks it's going to get baptized!" Maybe a firefighter/preacher!

Derek's famous!

Derek said he was interviewed the other day at school. I thought it was for the news paper until I asked my friend "Ms. El Dorado" Magen Parker what it was about. The El Dorado Promise was revamping its web site and interviewed several children. I got on the computer this morning and went to Magen's blog and see a picture of my handsome son and the home page. Check it out! www.eldoradopromise.com

Playing catch up

We did enjoy a wonderful Christmas with our families. It has just taken me awhile to get in the mood to blog about it, I guess. We went to Bismarck in mid December to celebrate with the Michigan Jobes. So good to see them! It was so fun watching Andrew and Brylee, who are only 8 days apart, play with each other.

We stayed in El Dorado for Christmas Day. This is only the second time we have done this. Charlie and Lesa drove down Christmas Eve to be with us, too. Usually we are either in Pocahontas or with Kent's parents. After a good breakfast on Christmas morning and some good play time with the new toys, we packed up and drove to Pocahontas to be with our family there.

Here is our favorite gift and the following pics are what Santa brought the kids. My parents got us a "family gift" this year. We have had SO much fun playing with our Wii. We bowl, play tennis, and golf mostly. Since we are a competitive bunch, this is right up our ally.
Santa got Derek a soccer goal. He loves it!

Santa gave Austin a Nascar race track. Lots of fun!

And Brylee bear was given this fun ride on toy from Santa. She mostly pushes it around instead of riding, but fun none the less.

I do have more to blog about. Basketball season has started and both boys have played their first games. I'll post videos soon!

Shout out!

I know, I know I'm so behind on blogging about our holiday haul, but I can't sleep and so I'm doing a quick post about my AWESOME Razorbacks! We've beat 2 ranked teams in one week! If anyone had had a video camera recording in my living room an hour ago, we would have been on AFV. Derek and I were beside ourselves with excitement. And remarkably we didn't wake the 2 sleeping children. I promise to post soon about Christmas, New Year's yada, yada. Until then......WHOOOOOOOOO PIG SOOOOOOOOIE!